My attention was drawn to this 2005 novel by a friend whose book club has it scheduled for discussion and she wondered what I thought. The first thing to note, is the date of publication. It was published seventeen years before Ukraine’s current war. Be aware too that it’s fiction – as I wasn’t – until, very curious, I read the first page and realised that the title is ruefully ironic. This is a novel about a family of Ukrainian descent living in Peterborough, or at least that’s where the family home is.

Nadezsha (Nadia) who narrates, is a happily married sociology lecturer at Anglia Polytechnic University in Cambridge. She is worried about her 84 year old widowed father. He is a highly educated engineer who, eventually escaped the horrors of World War Two, Stalin and camps and came to England with his wife Ludmilla. She too had lived through terrible experiences in her homeland, alongside her elder daughter Vera.

Pappa is writing a history of tractors, whose title provides the title of the novel. It is also, incidentally, a history of the Soviet Union, including, of course, Ukraine. He regards tractors as the basis of all political outcomes as he patiently explains at length and many time to Nadia’s rather wonderful husband Mike while Nadia tries to sort out the mess her father has allowed his life to get into.

The mess is called Valentina. She is a blousy, not very law-abiding Ukranian women with huge breasts (Nadia discovers a bill for their enlargement) and no money. Fifty years younger than Pappa, she is on the make, wants to stay in Britain and targets the old man who is lonely and very susceptible. Well Reader, he marries her and the situation gets ever more complicated. But Lewycka is too good a novelist just to make Valentina into a scheming pantomime villain preceded by her grossly enlarged assets. Yes, she isn’t very nice and you want Pappa to get shot of her (although he’s capriciously ambivalent) but she’s also a quite hardworking woman trying to maximise opportunities for her teenage son in a culture she doesn’t fully understand. So we, and Nadia, do feel some sympathy.

The characterisation in this novel is splendid. There is a long-standing feud between Nadia and her sister although they do have to co-operate now because of Pappa. Gradually we learn the roots of the conflict. Vera is ten years older and remembers the camps. She is a tough divorcee and despises Nadia, born in Britain, for her liberal views but there is slow burn reconciliation which is rather uplifting – and an intelligent exploration of how misunderstandings and simply not knowing the truth can fester in a family. Also beautifully drawn is Valentina’s ex-husband, an academic working in Ukraine – calm, measured, determined and likeable.

I learned a lot from this novel about the history of Ukraine and how the experiences they have lived through must have shaped people like Pappa and Valentina. I also chuckled – often. Lewycka has, consciously, or not, borrowed a technique from Dickens which worked comically for him every time as it does for her. When she gets on the warpath Nadia dubs herself “Mrs Flog-‘em-and-send-‘em-home” and sustains the joke at her own expense for hundreds of pages. Pappa is forced to buy Valentina, who has never passed a driving test, a car (well three, actually) one of which is dismissed by her as “crap car” because it won’t go. Her English is short on conjunctions, articles and verbs but contains strings of angry nouns. Nadia refers to it as “crap car” for the rest of the novel. There is a lot of tragic-comedy in Lewyck’s writing and it makes this novel as appealing as it is revealing.

Next week on Susan’s Bookshelves: Trelawny’s Cornwall by Petroc Trelawny

A Christmas Carol

Abridged from Charles Dickens and directed by Richard Williams

Narrator: Alistair McGowan

Conductor/piano: Joanna MacGregor

Brighton Philharmonic Brass Quintet

St George’s Kemptown, Brighton

14 December 2024

Star rating: 4

This atmospheric take on Dickens’s timeless tale is an exquisite bijoux version, lasting less than an hour. Opening with Joanna MacGregor beating a drum to alert the audience and to give the BPO Brass Quintet a lead in, it combines fine story telling with carols and feels rather magical in the semi darkness of St George’s, Kemptown.

Alexander McGowan, dressed in Victorian wing collar with cravat, sits in a big chair with book across his knees and is warmly compelling. He is, of course, famed for vocal versatility, accents and mimicry and here he gets the various characters – Scrooge, Marley’s ghost, the three spirits, the boy in the street, Bob Cratchit and many more – with total conviction. It is a fine performance.

The brass quintet breaks up the narrative with some lovely playing. I particularly admired the arrangement by Roger Harvey of Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (a tune I know as the hymn “O Great and Mighty wonder”) in which all five instruments – two trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba – weave contrapuntally around each other. I’m, always pleased, moreover, to hear the tuba (John Elliott) being given its magnificent head. Eight carols and Christmas hymns joyfully punctuate the story.

There are sound effects too, to support the drama, sometimes from MacGregor on piano or percussion instruments and sometimes from the quintet players. And that works well too.

Once MacGowan has exited down the main aisle we get a Carol Fantasy arranged by John Iveson. It’s reasonable to listen to but hopeless, because of the tempi, to sing along to which is what we were invited to do. This adds nothing much and it would be better to end this show at MacGowan’s exit.

A Christmas Carol, which I have seen there once before (three years ago, I think) seems to have become a regular BPO Christmas event in Brighton, using different actors. It’s an attractive idea and clearly very popular: the early evening performance I attended was sold out. Booking for next year warmly recommended.

Two Turtle Doves

Dillie Keane and Barb Jungr with Sarah Travis

Crazy Coqs, London and touring

Star rating: 5

A feel-good show which exudes humour, talent and effortless musicality, this 75 minute Christmas cabaret concert is delightful.

Actually, of course, that musicality isn’t effortless at all. Dillie Keane and Barb Jungr are both first and foremost highly accomplished musicians who’ve been honing their considerable skills (composing, playing, singing, arranging and more) for decades. In this show I was particulay struck by how good Jungr is on the harmonium in a Bob Dylan number, for example.

Their Christmas Show ranges from the very funny to the seasonally poignant. Keane is especially good when she adopts the native accent of her Irish parents in, for example, the Twelve Days of Christmas told as a series of ever more distressed thank you letters from the recipient. I’ve heard this before (on radio) and it’s even more hilarious when done live with Keane’s masterful comic timing. Another wonderful number is her account of Grant Baynham’s Wine Song which sends up people who are pretentious about wine and unashamedly praises its capacity to get you drunk.

Jungr meanwhile gives us a lovely account of Santa, Teach Me To Drive with Keane harmonising and their Egg Nog song and Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer, both of which are dueted are great fun. They work seamlessly together in a show which is meant to feel relaxed and spontaneous.

Arguably, perhaps (and Keane and Jungr do say it) the real star of this show is Tony award-winning pianist Sarah Travis, the perfect accompanist who catches every pause and sings occasional harmonic lines at the same time. A player of her talent would enhance any performance, anywhere.

We hear a lot these days about ageism and marginalisation of older women in the performing arts industries. So it adds an additional level of pleasure to spend an hour or so with two septuagenarian women both so gleefully at the top of their game.

I have to say, though, hugely enjoyable as this show is, I don’t like Crazy Coqs as a venue. The seating is cramped. You have to put up with waiting staff taking orders and, disturbingly, bringing them to tables during the performance. They messed up my bill and charged me for everyone at my table. And the lavatories are totally inadequate for the numbers.

The Chimes

Adapted from Charles Dickens by David Willis

Music by Conor Linehan

Directed by Rob Ellis

Tower Theatre, Stoke Newington

Star rating: 2

In his “goblin story”, The Chimes (1844) Dickens was trying to repeat what he had done so successfully the year before with A Christmas Carol. The result is a very sentimental tale, with supernatural elements, laden with moralising. Even in its original novella form, it’s a weak effort after the richness of Ebenezer Scrooge and co.

David Willis’s brave and ambitious attempt to adapt it as a musical gives us a big cast, a Greek-style chorus driving the narrative, a busy ensemble and lots of walking about. The story, much less familiar to most audience members than A Christmas Carol, tells of Trotty Veck (Dom Ward) a very poor, widowed errand man, living near a church whose chimes dominate his thoughts. He is reluctant to let his daughter Meg (Imogen Front) marry her sweetheart. Then he climbs the church tower, has some scary/warning visions driven by goblins, and wakes up on new year’s day to see sense.

Ward is excellent in this role – sensitive, warm, passionate, distraught and very good at reactive listening of which he has do a great deal in the second act. And Front brings a whole range of emotions to Meg who really does – in the alternative futures scenes – have a pretty rough time. She delights in her love for Richard (Nvaron Anderson – good especially in the second half), and is one of the few people on stage who sings convincingly and in tune.

Sadly some of the chorus singing was neither together nor in tune and many of the solos were weak although Rachel Berg is a highly entertaining show stealer as Mrs Feeder. Some of composer Conor Linehan’s songs are WS Gilbert-style rapid patter and these fail if you can’t hear every word. Part of the problem seems to be that MD, Jonathan Norris – an admirably competent pianist – is seated stage right on the very edge of the Tower’s triangular space where the cast can’t see him. And he isn’t doing much obvious directing anyway. He simply plays the piano accompaniments, often too loudly so that singing is drowned.

The moralising gets wearisome in this quite lengthy show too. Much of it comes straight from Dickens but Ellis has worked on the timelessness of the piece: heartless treatment of the poor in society, injustice, shockingly patronising attitudes and so on. At times it all feels a bit obvious, particularly when, amidst all this Victorian stuff, we suddenly and incongruously get Santa Baby played quietly under the dialogue at the Blarney Hall party.

There are offsetting strengths though, of course. The moment at the end of Act 1 when Veck climbs the tower by going right up a ladder into the quasi-flies is enjoyably dramatic. The costumes (by Emma Efkeman) are lovely. The set of tubular bells, stage left, which represent the titular chimes both visually and aurally works perfectly. And the central movable platform is an effective and very versatile set device.

Obviously, I can only review what I see and I saw this show at its opening performance. It has time to bed down and mature before it closes on 21 December and I’m sure it will get better. In general Tower Theatre Company knows what it’s doing.

REVIEW: SLEEPING BEAUTY at Broadway Theatre, Catford 4 – 31 December

Susan Elkin • 9 December 2024

‘Good in parts’ ★★★

It’s a show with strengths and weaknesses. Susie McKenna (who also directs) provides a sparky, original script which is, in places, genuinely funny – a witty summary of the progress from spinning wheels to Amazon, for example. And if a bird dropping lands on your head and you choose to ignore it you are, of course, undeterred. (Think about it).

Moreover, you don’t go to panto expecting plot twists but there a couple of interesting ones in this show. Why shouldn’t the Prince (Surone Stokes – good) meet monsters in the forest he has to hack down? And of course, in 2024 it makes no sense that the princess (Roshani Abbey – of whom more shortly) will come out of her coma to find a man she’s never seen before and instantly agree to marry him. McKenna’s is cheer-worthy feminist reworking.

On the other hand, the script is absolutely larded with overtly leftish political digs. I am a Lewisham resident and know that our council is 100% Labour. There is no opposition in this borough, so the panto is playing to local allegiances. Nonetheless, all this preaching/pandering to the converted gets tiresomely wearing.

The show’s strengths include Justin Brett as Dame Nanny Norah which he lays for laughs, obviously, but is never grotesque and there isn’t a single joke about bodily functions which is a welcome change. He has moreover strikingly beautiful diction, isn’t afraid to use RP and good at giving jokes time to settle.

Lisa Davina Phillip has glittering purple stage presence as Carabosse and sings commandingly. The decision for her to speak in a very broad Jamaican accent, however, again might do down well locally but at times it blurs the clarity and audibility. Natasha Lewis is dependable as Willowsnap, the good fairy who eventually has to facilitate the downfall of Carabosse – although here, it’s

about redemption rather than destruction.

Roshani Abbey, though, is the real star of this show. She packs Princess Thalia with feisty confidence and grace and her singing voice is outstanding. I was not surprised to learn afterwards that she trained at Royal Academy of Music.

The five piece band in the pit, directed by Ben Goddard-Young does a fine job too and I don’t think I’ve ever heard a harp (Morwenna Brown) worked into a panto score before. Its effect is delightful.

So it’s generally a pleasing show despite some weak links in the casting.

SLEEPING BEAUTY at Broadway Theatre, Catford 4 – 31 December

Box Office https://www.broadwaytheatre.org.uk/events/sleeping-beauty/

This review was first published by London Pub Theatres Magazine: https://www.londonpubtheatres.com/review-sleeping-beauty-at-broadway-theatre-catford-4-31-december

White Christmas – The Mill at Sonning

Reviewer: Susan Elkin

The Reviews Hub – LondonDecember 8, 2024

0 1 minute read

White Christmas The Cast Phopto By Pamela Raith — The cast photo by Pamela Raith

Music and Lyrics: Irving Berlin

Based on Paramount Pictures Film written for screen by Norman Krasna, Norman Panama and Melvin Frank

Director: Jonathan O’Boyle

3.5 stars

White Christmas is an unashamedly sentimental, and potentially dated, show, so it has to be taken on its own terms, which is exactly what Jonathan O’Boyle does in this production featuring 14 pretty talented performers.

It tells the story, of course, of two American servicemen who discover, around Christmas 1944, that they can sing and entertain others. Fast forward 10 years, and they’re a well-established duo featuring on the Ed Sullivan Show. The flimsy and gentle plot which follows takes them to a failing hotel in Vermont, which, by coincidence, is owned by their old General. The idea is to stage a show in his barn, which eventually they do, having meanwhile taken up with a pair of sisters with whom the path of true love wavers a bit, but, obviously, there’s a “happily ever after” ending because that’s part of the cheesiness. There is nothing remotely hard-hitting about White Christmas.

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Nonetheless, it’s an energetic production full of impressive tap dancing (impressive choreography by Gary Lloyd) and smiling ensemble numbers danced by supple folk who can repeatedly shoot a leg almost to 180 degrees in their pretty, coordinating costumes designed by Natalie Titchener.

Because this is a show about staging a show, there’s plenty of scope for set pieces. I Love The Piano, developed and orchestrated for this production by MD Jae Alexander, which opens Act 2, is a good example of how this helps to drive the piece – and it’s fun. Another instance, in a different mood, is Gabriella Williams as Betty singing (very well indeed) in a nightclub.

The seven-piece band, which is out of sight in another room, purrs along (exceptionally good bass playing by Matt Hollick) sounding, at times, so vibrant that it could be an orchestra of 20 players, and this is largely down to Jae Alexander’s skilled arrangements.

This mildly soporific show is an ideal Christmas choice for the Mill at Sonning.

Runs until 25 January 2025

Pan – Rayne Theatre, Chickenshed. London

Reviewer: Susan Elkin

The Reviews Hub – LondonDecember 7, 2024

0 2 minutes read

Pan Purple Dress Rota EC 323 — Purple Rota

Writers and Composers: Dave Carey, Jo Collins, Hector Dogliani, Ashley Driver, Phil Haines, Will Laurence, Cara McInanny, Paul Morall, Sebastian Ross and Aine Smith

Directors: Michael Bossisse and Louise Perry

4 stars

This powerful show opens with one of Chickenshed’s trademark large ensembles of storytellers, one of several groupings in this strong and moving show. They resemble refugees and come from all over the world, eager to tell, share and adapt their stories, so we’re immediately and firmly on Chickenshed’s inclusive wavelength.

Then Cara McInanny, as Grandmother, begins to unravel the story of Peter Pan with her grandchild, a narrative to which the show returns from time to time to remind us that this is a story about stories. It’s a successful and rather neat device which stresses the ownership of stories.

Chickenshed, currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, is a theatre company which trains (from infancy to degree level), nurtures and employs children and adults of all backgrounds and abilities using theatre as a development tool. For a show like Pan, it casts in the lead roles a core of talented, experienced adults, most of whom have come up through the Chickenshed training route and now work for the company as teachers, mentors, leaders or developers.

Children and young adults form the huge supporting ensembles. There are five rotas (Purple rota at the performance reviewed on 05 December) at different performances, each comprising over 150 young people. This means that Chickenshed directors are working with a cast of 800. It sounds an unlikely enterprise, but with imaginative, phenomenally well-disciplined choreography, it works astonishingly well. And along with cartwheels and some beautiful down-stage balletic lifts, it sometimes includes a wheelchair or a child who has to be led by other actors. We get a whole stage of pirates and another of lost boys, making good use of all the levels on Andrew Caddies’s set. It all fits together with seamless professionalism.

Jonny Morton is excellent as Mr Darling and Hook, snarling, cackling, plotting, and then collapsing whenever he hears the reptilian ticking. Bethany Hamlin delights as the ever-reasonable, caring, distraught Mrs Darling, and Ashley Driver has the vulnerable but hilarious Smee perfectly. Tristan Manzi, the only character who actually flies on wires, is one of two alternating Peters. He’s perfectly petulant and a very lithe performer.

Shiloh Maersk is charismatically good to watch, too. Integral signing, by most cast and ensemble members at different points, is a given in a Chickenshed show. Maersk, however, is rarely off stage and signing almost continuously, as well as taking part in complex choreographed sequences.

Meanwhile, in a cage above upstage left is a rotating band with over 40 youth members. Skilfully directed, they make a wonderful sound and, along with powerful singing, the music drives the show.

Runs until 11 January 2025

I am a lapsed high Anglican: or rather someone who had suddenly saw light at about 18 and walked decisively away from it, a self-declared unbeliever. I retain, though, an affection for traditional hymns, the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer and that’s probably why I enjoy (The Reverend) Richard Coles’s Canon Clements novels. Set in the early 1990s they are full of nostalgia for a time when canons still lived in big drafty rectories, were pally with the local gentry and, because there was only a single parish to run, knew everyone in the community. The end of an era.

They are murder stories with Daniel Clements, who is quietly and inactively gay, solving mysteries alongside his friend Neil who’s a local police officer. Of course the plots are wildly, gloriously implausible but I’ve never read a work of detective fiction with a believable narrative. That’s not the point. The puzzle element is fun and Coles has created a totally believable cast of characters – the sort of people I’m delighted to spend time with, After all Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are as unlikely as they are engaging. In our own time you could say the same for Roy Grace, Ruth Galloway or Karen Pirie but my goodness they’re entertaining. So is Daniel Clements.

In the ongoing world that Coles has created so evocatively, Daniel’s mother, Audrey, is busy with her cooking, mild snobbery, dotty pride, kindness and competence. Slightly more distant is her other son Theo, a mildly successful actor who visits, especially at Christmas. Honoria, daughter of the irascible Bernard, outmoded Lord of the Manor, is down to earth, modern, attractive and fun

This new Canon Clements story is a seasonal novella which gives us Audrey cooking Christmas dinner for ten, at short notice, because there’s an issue at the big house so she invites four extra people including the De Floures family’s rather ghastly cousins from America. It’s an ultra traditional occasion (although Audrey has secretly bought ready-made mincemeat from the Cash & Carry) with crackers, charades, strained group dynamics and Audrey’s “famous” bread sauce. Coles helpfully gives us the recipe at the end.

But before we get to any of that we attend the Christmas Eve afternoon service, Midnight Mass and the service on Christmas morning – all shot through with Daniel’s thoughts and observations and very funny as well at catapaulting me back to my childhood and adolescence. Coles’s witty observations often make me laugh aloud “… and after everyone had resolved the peculiarly English challenge of managing side plate, forks, cups and saucers and teaspoons while sitting on a sofa …”

It’s arguably the gentlest murder mystery ever because one is four fifths into the book before anyone dies and then it’s assumed to be natural causes until Neil and Dan spot something amiss and come up with a theory.

Just the job for a winter’s evening in the run-up to Christmas.

Next week on Susan’s Bookshelves: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

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REVIEW: SLEEPING BEAUTY at Broadway Theatre, Catford 4 – 31 December

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